Sri Lanka expects about 70 thousand tourists from Russia in 2017

“Sri Lanka expects to host about 70.000 Russian tourists in 2017”, - said Dulmit Varuna, representative of the Trade and Tourism Promotion Department of the Embassy of Sri Lanka. "Our goal is about 70 thousand in 2017. Last year we hosted 58 thousand Russians", - reported D.Varuna. He noted that in the first half of 2017, the tourist flow from Russia reached more than 33 thousand people, whereas a year earlier in the same period it amounted 28.6 thousand people. According to him, Sri Lanka was partially helped by the absence on the Russian market of Egypt and closed Turkey. "Tourist trips to East Asia differ from these directions, but this gave the Russians an opportunity to consider new directions for themselves. Due to this fact we noted a slight increase of the tourist flow to Sri Lanka in winter: during the winter season 2015-2016 we hosted 44 thousand Russians, for the winter of 2016 -2017 - already 53.4 thousand", - added D.Varuna. As part of the tourism promotion, the embassy together with Coral Travel tour operator organized a seminar for representatives of travel agencies. According to D.Varuna, - “Coral Travel has transported 3 thousand tourists to the island during the winter charter program, together with their regular transportation – totally about 5 thousand tourists. This year we will continue the charter program: since October 28 till May 15, 2018. Every 10-12 days will be performed flights by Boeing 767".